


untimely offer

by jayhood



Series: misplaced feelings [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Asexual Character, Dialogue Heavy, Incest, M/M, Past Batcat, References to Under the Red Hood, established relationships - Freeform, other characters are mentioned but not present
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:28:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24898462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jayhood/pseuds/jayhood
Summary: To say that Bruce blindsided Jason, again, is to say nothing at all.
Relationships: Bruce Wayne/Jason Todd
Series: misplaced feelings [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1801675
Comments: 15
Kudos: 73





	untimely offer

**Author's Note:**

> Kinda a sequel/missing scene to "misplaced feelings". Takes place after Dick talks to Bruce, before they crack the case.

Bruce put down a jewelry box at the coffee table, right where Jason's elbow rested. Jason glanced at it out of the corner of his eye but didn't immediately recognize as something tied to the Penguin's case, so he said absently:

"What's this?" 

Bruce was staring at the screens intently. Nothing was going on at the Iceberg Lounge from what Jason could tell, just Bruce being a bastard as usual.

Two can play that game, though. Jason scratched his foot with the other one (that got at least some attention, unlike him asking the direct question) but otherwise did not make a move.

Well, he started to chew his burger obnoxiously, and that, too, gained him a stare. Bruce was either disapproving of the mess he made of himself, with the juice running by his fingers, his chin. Or he was in one of his fugues where he forwent sleep and food, so he was in fact eyeing Jason with hunger. 

Used to be, Jason would get worried, try to stage an intervention. Now, he wasn't above this himself and hell, still so far so good, so whatever. Besides, it was not going to work anymore. In the past, Bruce would ever listen to him and take a break because he gave a shit about what would happen with Jason otherwise, without him there. A long time ago, he actually cared and wanted to be there for Jason. Wanted to be there  _ with _ Jason, for himself.

Now, he wanted three things:

  * No crime in Gotham;
  * Rubber bullets in Jason's gun;
  * Sometimes, when the mood struck, to get his dick wet.



Jason slurped the soda. 

"You want a bite?" he asked in the end, gesturing with his burger.  


Yeah, he always broke first, so sue him.

Bruce hesitated, but nodded and started to sit down in the vacant chair. Oh  _ no _ . Jason snatched the take out bag from the floor and threw it at his chest.

"Take this and get out," he said. "I am waiting on the little demon. He promised to bring his friend by, the one with magical powers. Maybe she could help to look into portals between dimensions and shit."

"Why me being here would be a problem," Bruce said, squeezing the paper bag in his fist.

And he doesn't say things like that, he either knew or didn't care, so it was another case of Bruce being an asshole and trying to start something.

"Because he could tell any of his siblings he saw you here?" Jason explained slowly.

"They already know. You told them."

"Yeah, no, they figured it out themselves. I just took them aside so Dick wouldn't blow up on me where the little gremlin can see. He's traumatized as it is, he doesn't need... That."

"Damian is old enough. He will figure it out sooner or later."

Jason looked at him like he was mad.

"No, he won't. I won't tell him, you won't tell him, Dickie sure as hell won't, Cass is not a big talker in general and I will kill Tim for real if he does, so he will keep his trap shut."

"Jason. He will find out. And his siblings just will have to deal."

"With Damian?"

"With us," Bruce nudged the jewelry box toward Jason.

And okay, Jason was not a genius-level detective or inventor or Biz high off faux K. But he wasn't  _ stupid _ . He suddenly just knew what's in the box.

Apparently,  _ Bruce  _ was stupid. Or delusional. Having a mental breakdown. Midlife crisis.

Jason did not open the box.

"Did Dick tell you something after I left?” he scrunched his nose. “Is that it?”

Bruce frowned.

“As a matter of fact, yes,” he said. “But he only reminded me something I knew all along, but haven’t lived by for a long time.”

“That you, in fact, hate your son,  _ and  _ will do everything to spite him?” Jason said incredulously. That was a lot of words from Bruce.

“No,” Bruce said. “I love Dick. I love all of my children. Family is important to me. Family is why I am doing what I do, it’s how I do it for so long.”

“Touching, probably,” Jason sneered. “And that’s why the next thing you decide to do is to spit in all of their faces.”

“Jason.”

Bruce put down the paper bag, lowered himself so he could be on the same eye level as Jason. One of his knees was touching the floor, now. There was, for some reason, too much saliva in Jason’s mouth now, and he tried to gulp it down without seeming as though Bruce unnerved him, taking Jason’s hand in his. Burger grease still on it and all.

“You  _ are  _ my family too,” Bruce said.

Jason wanted to stop him right there but in horror, it seemed like all he could do was stare at Bruce, wide-eyed.

“ _ How  _ we fit together, it changed over the years,” Bruce said. “There were times when we didn’t fit at all. You have grown in the direction I haven’t been ready to accept. I...”

“Regressed to being an egocentric control-freak?” 

_ With manipulation, lies, intimidation tactics instead of parenting skills _ , Jason wanted to add but didn’t. Talking to Bruce about parenting was the last thing he wanted at the moment. Or ever.

“It took us - a long time to find a place beside each other again,” Bruce said, disjointed. “And it’s  _ different _ . New. But you are... my family. I just want to make it official.”

Jason got up. Waved a hand at Bruce not to follow him. Anyway, he wasn’t going far. Just to the cabinet where he kept whiskey.

“You mean,” he said, his own voice ringing hollow in his head. “Make it official,  _ again _ . Because, legally, I am your son. Me being dead doesn’t make me less a fact. If you had died five years ago and not me, I would have become a hell of a young rich bachelor. So how exactly you envisioned it to go? Just me and you, under the favor of the night, have a small commitment ceremony? Exchange rings and hand-written vows? In masks? Maybe find a priest to scare or blackmail into blessing the union.”

Bruce slowly got up, his face blank. Something in Jason’s speech hurt him, but Jason didn’t fathom what, nor did he care.

“Or, I know! I don’t have an established legal identity yet, hm, what about changing my name and everything else about myself, just to indulge your little unclosed gestalt?”

Bruce’s lips pursed at that.

“So? What it was going to be? Us  _ both  _ hiding from everyone, or only  _ me  _ living a lie? What’s even the point?”

“The point,” Bruce said slowly. “Is for us to be together. As a family.”

“Yeah? Maybe I don’t want that, ever think about it? Come on, Bruce. You’re not my family.  _ Artemis  _ is my family, Biz is. Kory. Roy was. God, you and Dick, you’re the same. Thinking you can make someone family by saying so. But you don’t even  _ want  _ that, neither of you. You just think you  _ should _ , to spite one another.”

“Alright,” Bruce said.

“Alright? Alright?”

“If you do not want to commit... If you don’t want to be with me at all,” Bruce said, quietly. “I understand.”

He was a picture of noble grace, that moment. Oh, he  _ understood _ , did he?

“ _ I _ don’t want to be with you?” Jason repeated. “ _ You  _ don’t want that. Not really. You only ever kissed me because you were horny and frustrated and still a little unhinged after Selina, and I was  _ there _ .”

Bruce pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose.

“It’s not about Selina,” he said angrily. “Why everyone thinks that.”

“Gee, I don’t know,” Jason said, smiling without humor. “Maybe because it is? Love of your life, she is. You wanted to marry  _ her _ . You wanted to  _ retire  _ for her, didn’t you?”

“Selina,” Bruce said. “Is in the past. We broke up months before me and you ever... got together.”

“You didn’t break up!” Jason shouted. “She left you! And you weren’t the same ever since. You were beating up suspects to make them confess without a shred of evidence, then you went and made sure they weren’t found guilty by the jury. You drove Damian away from the city for a long time. You literally hallucinated your own father! You punched  _ Tim _ , for fuck’s sake, I  _ know  _ you remember it, you groveled for a long time after you came to your senses. Remember what I said to you?”

“That you will put me down if I ever put my hands on any of the kids again. Including Dick,” Bruce said seriously. But then he smiled. “That’s when I kissed you. That’s when I  _ knew _ .”

“Knew what, what I am easy? Big surprise. Could have asked your ex. The baby mama, not the one you still in love with.”

“I am  _ not  _ still in love with Selina,” Bruce said.

Jason was ready to strangle him at this point. Why lie? Or is it denial?

“Wait,” Bruce frowned. “You slept with  _ Talia _ ? When? Was that when you were living under her care? How  _ old  _ were you?”

“Isn’t it a little late to play a concerned parent figure? It’s none of your fucking business. Let’s focus on what’s important here. Even if you don’t love Selina anymore, or think you don’t, because she hurt you or whatever, it doesn’t mean the feelings are gone. It doesn’t mean you love  _ me _ . Say, if I open the ring box, is it going to be your mother’s ring? The same one you gave Selina?”

“No,” Bruce said. “It’s actually my father’s ring.”

“Oh, so you kept the ring she returned to  _ yourself _ ? That’s actually worse.”

Bruce held his breath before slowly releasing it.

“It has the Wayne family crest on it. I wanted you to have it. I always wanted you to have it.”

No.  _ That  _ was the worst. Bruce had to see it, hadn’t he? That kind of thing should pass from father to son, and they were  _ not that _ , and any kind of acknowledgment that  _ at some point _ ,  _ they  _ were? Even if it wasn’t  _ real _ ?

"You’re one sad, messed up man, turns out, when you actually verbalize what's going on in your batty head,” Jason said, tiredly. “I liked you better when you didn’t talk.”

“I can do that,” Bruce said and stepped closer.

Took the glass from Jason’s hand - Jason didn’t even drink from it yet! But did Bruce care? No. Bruce was... kissing him.

And it wasn’t nicer than it ever has been before. It wasn’t something Jason like, actively wanted, or got what all the fuzz was about. He ought to push him away. Maybe say something scathing. Break his hand, or his jaw. But thing is, Jason was feeling too weary to continue their fight.

He draw away, breaking the kiss, and Bruce even let him go, frowning at him peculiarly, as though he wanted to press his lips to Jason’s forehead, now. To check if he’s falling ill. Jason couldn’t handle that expression. He hid his face, pressing it to Bruce’s chest.

“ _ No _ ,” he said, hating how small his voice sounded. “I don’t want this.”

“I promise you. It is not about Selina. I don’t want to be with her anymore.”

“And I don’t  _ actually  _ care!”

Jason stepped away, shrugging Bruce’s hands.

Bruce considered him.

“Is it about what Dick and the others said to you? It’s not their business. They will deal.”

“You think it would have stopped me if I really wanted to be with you? Their good opinion?”

“I know it would,” Bruce said simply. “You pretend nothing matters to you, that people don’t matter, but in fact, you feel very deeply. You always cared.”

He moved to close the distance between them again, but Jason stopped him with the hand on his chest. Bruce froze.

“Are you really so full of yourself that you can’t just take my word for it, that I don’t want you? Don’t want to marry you, don’t want to have sex with you, don’t want you to kiss me.”

“I think you’re  _ scared _ . People left you behind so often, you’re terrified of admitting you need them.”

“You were one of these people, Bruce," Jason said, closing his eyes. “You’re the one that it hurt the most from. It wasn’t even  _ once _ . It was - again, and again. You  _ always  _ chose someone else. Tim. Joker. Damian. Felipe Garzonas. I didn’t even kill him, you know? I should have, especially before Gloria hanged herself - I should have saved her. Maybe I shouldn’t have killed  _ everyone  _ that I did. But him? That’s one of those I am never going to change my mind about. But I didn’t  _ kill  _ him. God dammit, Bruce,  _ I was a kid _ ! But even  _ if  _ I killed him, you  _ still  _ was supposed to be on my side."

"I will never condone murder," Bruce said hoarsely.

"It's not about condoning murder, it's about _ loving someone  _ unconditionally! And you don't. There's always, a condition upon condition, some kind of invisible user agreement. And you terminate membership upon violation without a second thought."

" _ I don’t want you to kill _ , is it that selfish of me? Not want you to have this burden on your soul? This responsibility?”

“Oh, so when you beat me up, when you  _ slit my throat _ , you were relieving me from a burden? You were saving me when you killed me?” Jason said, his voice even wasn’t trembling. Much,

“What? I...”

“You could have just left. You know? It was  _ shitty  _ of me to try to make you kill the clown. Should have done it myself, when I first got my hands on it, in London. Would have been fair. Would be safer for everyone. Wouldn’t put you through a ringer just so I could have gotten my revenge - just so I would, perhaps, get a confirmation that I ever meant something to you. That I could mean something to you again, even in the face of mountains of evidence to the contrary. You got yourself a big, nice family when you left. Patched things with Dick, got a new kid, more your speed. With manners, with brains. Nice. I bet Tim never contemplated murder. Never wanted to beat someone up so hard they wouldn’t get up.”

Bruce put his hands on Jason’s shoulders.

“Wait,” he said. “Stop.”

But Jason couldn’t stop.

“And Cass, and everyone else that followed. I don’t  _ blame  _ you! I mean, I know I am awesome but there’s no accounting for taste. You can’t blame someone that they don’t love you back, that’s shitty. So no. I don’t blame you for not shooting Joker when I put a gun into your hand. But god, why didn’t you just  _ left _ ? Why did you kill me?”

“Jason!” Bruce raised his voice. “What are you talking about?”

Jason laughed.

“It’s like you don’t know what happens if someone’s artery gets nicked, and there’s also an explosion, and no ambulance in sight. You think I crawled from the rubble like that cockroach? I died, Bruce. Again. I was dead for hours. Maybe a day. I woke up in the city morgue.”

Bruce shook his head.

“There were no files on any casualties from that explosion.”

“Yeah, I checked myself out. Made sure not to leave a paper trail. Didn’t need you on my tail before I was ready. I  _ wasn _ ’t ready, then. I probably would have allowed you to do it the second time. It’s not like it sticks.”

“I don’t believe you,” Bruce said. “Talia dig you out, put you into the Lazarus Pit. People don’t just wake up on the mortician’s table.”

“Oh, it wasn’t the table, it was one of the drawers. You wrong, anyhow. Talia didn't dig me out, I did. She just found me, catatonic, on Gotham streets.  _ Your _ streets. Since then, I just can’t die. Sorry about that.”

Bruce let him go. He pressed a hand to his mouth, hunched slightly. It almost like the thought of immortal Red Hood disgusted him. 

Jason nodded.

“So, yeah. I think you should leave.”

Bruce did, very promptly. He even forgot to take his father’s ring with him.

That was okay. Jason was going to pass it along with Damian.

**Author's Note:**

> Look at those two! Talking! Jason even articulates that he wants! Or, in this case, doesn't. Well, kinda articulates.  
> When there's so much shit between people, it could be hard to communicate properly. But it's a step in right direction, I think.
> 
> I love when people comment! Please do that if you liked it?
> 
> hey, I'm on [tumblr](https://redjaybathood.tumblr.com/) if you want to ask anything or send a prompt or whatever


End file.
